Inside the rise of Jude Bellingham, the 19-year-old England phenom tipped to take FIFA World Cup by storm

If any outsiders had been privy to that conversation, they would have found it hard to believe that an unknown teenager would one day be considered among the best in the world. For the staff at Birmingham, though, who had watched him develop over the previous seven years, everything in that presentation made perfect sense.

There was no date on the World Cup target but five years later, at the first opportunity, the midfielder can tick off one of the biggest objectives on his target list. He is still only 19 but Bellingham has gone from strength to strength since signing for Borussia Dortmund in 2020.

Bellingham’s career is a success story that begins with his family. Growing up in Stourbridge, West Midlands, with his mum, Denise, father, Mark, and brother, Jobe, in a close-knit family unit he learnt the life skills that have kept him grounded despite the plaudits he receives.

After impressing against Manchester City in the Champions League last year, Pep Guardiola hailed the teenager’s exceptional skill, but the only praise the midfielder wanted was from his father.

“My dad saying what he said to me after that game is like what Guardiola said to me times a million, it means so much more,” he said.

It was Mark, a former forward for non-League side Leamington, who got his sons into football. As a young boy, Bellingham would be more interested in throwing the ball than kicking it, but at the age of six something clicked and he became obsessed with the game. He was spotted by Birmingham a year later.

However, it is off the pitch that Mark and Denise had the biggest impact on their son. To speak to anyone about Bellingham, they will tell you what an impressive man he is.

“I’m quite proud of the part I’ve played but his mum, dad and brother played the biggest part,” Mike Dodds, the former Birmingham academy manager, said. “They’re so consistent and the bond they have is so strong it’s made him very, very humble and incredibly focused. He’s so driven to be the very best and such a strong family bond is almost the perfect storm.”

Bellingham credits Dodds as one of three Birmingham coaches who were pivotal in getting him to where he is now, with Simon Jones and Kristjaan Speakman the other two, and they still have a close bond.

“When he first arrived he was one of a group of players that have similar physical and technical abilities, and all have strengths and weaknesses at that time,” Speakman said. “The under-11 bracket was when we first started seeing him accelerating. As he was getting to under-12 and accessing larger-sided games and 11 v 11, you started to see someone who was taking on the information at a lot quicker pace, someone who was understanding the dynamics of the game at a higher level.”

Dodds recalled having a battle with some of the other coaches at the club when Bellingham was in the under-12 side, arguing that he needed to be playing in age groups higher up.

“I felt that he needed stretching and pushing out of his comfort zone,” Dodds said. “I remember falling out with a lot of people over it.”

It did not go down too well with a young Bellingham either, who went through a three-month period of not speaking to Dodds when he was 15.

“We fell out a lot during that period because he’s very headstrong and there were certain things as a coach you need to push them in the right direction,” Dodds said. “The bits where it got fractious are the bits you realise he’s slightly different because of his desire to be the best.”

Bellingham continued to develop at a speed that meant he was outgrowing academy football. During an under-16 cup game against Manchester United, his team won 5-0 with Bellingham scoring all five, then against Liverpool in the final, which Birmingham won 8-3, he scored four and set up another three.

A significant part of Bellingham’s journey to becoming one of the best all-round midfielders in the game can be traced back to one conversation with Dodds in 2015.

“I sat down with him and I said I think you have the ability to play all areas of midfield, so sitting midfield was a No 4, No 8 was a box to box and No 10 was a scorer and creator,” Dodds said. “We added all those numbers up and it came to 22. So we sat down at the age of 12 and decided that was his number.”

Such was the significance of that number that when he left Birmingham, having set the record as the club’s youngest first-team player and goalscorer, they retired his shirt.

There were no concerns from those who had seen his development about how he would adapt at Dortmund, but the first impressions at the Bundesliga club were that he was very mature on and off the pitch.

“When you ask him things, the answers he gives show how much he thinks. It really is remarkable,” Dortmund’s talent development trainer, Otto Addo, said. “He has shown he has the quality with and without the ball, he makes lots of good runs, gets into great positions and has a very good technique, plus he’s prepared to get stuck in. He really does offer the full package.”

Through position-specific training and video analysis, they have worked on improving Bellingham’s game. Specifics include development on positioning between the opposition lines, which has helped him to find space when he receives the ball from defenders. He will take the ball on the half-turn and attack the space. In 22 games in all competitions this season he already has nine goals.

It is small tweaks to the technical side of his game that have helped him to push on, but his elite mentality has never changed. One scenario that impressed coaches was in the semi-final of the DFB-Pokal against Holstein Kiel in May 2021. Dortmund were winning 5-0 and coasting into the final but he sprinted back into his own half to win back possession.

He is regularly the first to arrive and the last to leave the club’s training ground and despite his superstar status he still has his humble Birmingham roots, tidying up after training and carrying things in for the coaches.

Now his journey has moved to Qatar. At the entrance to the Adidas concession in the fan park there is a giant picture of the 19-year-old and facing him on the other side is the seven-times Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi.

If the PowerPoint presentation continues to go to plan, then one day Bellingham will be up there as a Ballon d’Or winner himself, but for now it is some achievement to be in among the conversation with the best in the world.

“I still see the same nine-year-old kid,” Speakman said. “I see a polite young man who is absolutely obsessed with the game.”

And his journey is still only just beginning.

Originally published as Inside the rise of Jude Bellingham, the 19-year-old England phenom tipped to take FIFA World Cup by storm